(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to marketing and sales tools involving user interfaces and, more particularly, to strategic placement of functional identifiers on wireless devices for gaming, gambling, wagering, and/or lottery applications.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Brand strategy is the business of developing brands based on thorough marketing knowledge and insight. It is a physical expression of how a business direction and key messages will communicate and establish value effectively across a broad range using several mediums to enhance awareness, impact and equity of the brand, in short increasing companies “goodwill” which is often more valuable than the break-up value of the companies assets. Marketing often takes advantage of the interface between a consumer and an object to create intangible value in the form of branding some business' product or service. Examples of such interfaces include billboards, packaging, and electronic displays (TV screens and computer monitors). Use of such interfaces creates commercial goodwill helping businesses sell their products and/or services.
Additionally, mobile phones are increasingly being used for entertainment purposes. By way of example, a German-based company, scaraboo, with a website found at www.scaraboo.de, provides information regarding its commercially available gaming software for betting, lottery, and casino services, such software being used for electronic gaming. Scaraboo also mentions Siemens mobile as a collaborative entity for providing mobile network operations that function with its software. Such software is stated on the website to further include a mobile gaming platform with open interfaces for the integration of wireless gaming and gambling solutions based on Java™ programming that provide for personalization, localization, and notification channels.
Also, recent news articles report similar systems relating to “M-gambling,” or gambling activities that are performed using cellular phones. In the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Austria, regular mobile phones can be used to buy lottery tickets, bet on sporting events, or enter sweepstakes for prizes. Many countries in Asia are purported to be beginning to offer similar mobile phone-based services. This type of technology permits these activities without requiring face-to-face transactions between the phone user and another person for completing the transaction. However, the technology is typically based upon text messaging, and simply uses ordinary cellular phone devices, which are not automatically programmed or connected to particular sites that are of interest to the user, and do not permit additional advertising and/or commercial activity as part of the transaction.
Recently, in today's mobile information society, an unexploited and increasingly ubiquitous consumer-object interface has arisen, namely the use of wireless devices as an integral part of daily living. Although such devices often advertise the manufacturer of the device itself by including an identifying mark somewhere on the device, generally such marks are not interactive or functional and do not provide the end user with any true commercial function, in our model the consumer may through the mark itself interact in some way with the business, its product or services of his/her choice. The mark is nonfunctional at present. Thus, there is a need and opportunity for functional identifiers, or marks on wireless devices that function to induce and/or permit a consumer to interact with a business, its product or services, i.e., to purchase, order, request information or conduct some other business-related action and/or transaction using the user interface, including, in particular, gaming/gambling activities. The present invention recognizes and solves this developing marketing need and opportunity to place more control and ease of action and/or transaction in the hands of consumers. In a society that is becoming increasingly more mobile, this solution provides both parties with a tool, that increases efficiencies, and is very effective.